STORRS — Anyone who insinuates that it's easy being the UConn women's basketball team merely because the Huskies appear to win so effortlessly isn't giving them enough credit for handling all the adversity they've faced this season.

The team that seemingly everyone expects to cruise into the national championship game on auto pilot received more discouraging news and yet another big challenge this week when junior All-American Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis was diagnosed with mononucleosis.

"It's kind of like it's been rough for us from the start," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "Someone's always been hurt. Someone's been sick, in and out. We haven't had really had our full team the whole season. So it sucks, but like Coach said today whatever people think is going to knock us down it's just going to make us stronger."

Mosqueda-Lewis, the Huskies' fourth-leading scorer at 11.2 points per game and their best 3-point shooter, is expected miss 3-6 weeks.

"It's been kind of one hit after the next," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "My luck hasn't been that great this year. But I'm just trying to stay positive and get back as soon as possible. Hopefully, I feel better in two weeks and maybe they

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can have a look at my spleen and it looks good and I can come back earlier than three weeks."

If Mosqueda-Lewis is only out three weeks, she could be back for the American Athletic Conference Tournament. If she's out six weeks, she could potentially miss an NCAA Tournament Elite Eight game at Louisville.

"I think at some point since November there has been a lot of head shaking," Coach Geno Auriemma said. "There has been a lot of weird things that have happened, one thing after another. It does get a little bit frustrating, but only because of what we can and can't do in practice, only because of how you feel about those guys who can't play. You know how bad they want to play, and you know how competitive they are."

Mosqueda-Lewis said she had no idea she had mononucleosis. She had head congestion and a sore throat last week so she went to athletic trainer Rosemary Ragle last Friday looking for cold medicine. Concerned that she might have strep throat like last year, Ragle sent her to the doctor, who ordered tests to determine if it was the flu, strep throat or mono.

"I never went in there saying, 'I'm tired. I can't do this. I can't do that. I think I have mono,'" Mosqueda-Lewis said. "I actually have been feeling pretty good and feeling like I was energized through practice and throughout the games. So I never really thought that I would've had mono."

She hadn't practiced since last Sunday's game and will have her spleen checked again next Friday to determine if she can resume intense physical activity. Until then, she has been instructed to take it easy so her body can recover.

The illness puts a little more stress on a UConn team that entered the season with limited depth given that it had only started with nine full scholarship players, the Huskies have endured a lot of challenges. Morgan Tuck and Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis were lost for eight games each with injuries. Tuck returned briefly only to ultimately have season-ending knee surgery on Jan. 30.

Brianna Banks has missed three of the Huskies' last five games with a chronic ankle injury and is expected to have her first full practice today. She's likely to play Sunday at South Florida.

Mosqueda-Lewis missed eight games earlier this season due to a contusion on her right elbow. She injured the elbow during the second game of the season against Stanford on Nov. 11. She returned to action on Dec. 17 for the Huskies' game at Duke and made an immediate impact as she made a career-high seven 3-pointers.

In the games that immediately followed, however, it appeared her performance against the Blue Devils was aided either by the adrenaline of her first game back or mediocre Duke defense. Being out of game shape and rhythm made her look a little sluggish for about a month, but then her game really started to take shape again the last week of January.

She was rebounding again, posting up, shooting mid-range jumpers, playing better defense and overall just moving much better on the court. She looked a lot like the same player who led the nation in 3-point shooting last season and at the same time proved to be a solid all-around player.

Mosqueda-Lewis had averaged 15.5 points over her last six games including posting her first career double-double (16 points, 11 rebounds) Feb. 4 against SMU in a game in which she also had seven assists.

"Definitely to go out on a good note is a lot better," Mosqueda-Lewis said. "It lets me know that I got my mind right. I kind of got back to the place where I was last year somewhat and just of hopefully come back and try to make sure that happens again."

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